California state textbooks come up for review every six years. This year, the sixth grade texts relating to Ancient Indian history are under review.

Numerous experts recognize that most of these textbooks are inadequate for a number of reasons and have many errors on Indian history. Taking advantage of this inadequacy, two groups: Vedic Foundation and Hindu Education Foundation (VF and HEF), backed by the Hindu American Foundation (HAF)—all with demonstrable links to Hindu rightwing organizations – suggested many changes in the depiction of ancient Indian history and Hinduism in the text books.

But instead of just making corrections to erroneous texts, their proposed changes also reflect an insular philosophy, even suggesting a chauvinistic political agenda, which seek to equate the history of India with the history of Hinduism, and the living diverse religion of Hinduism with a narrow interpretation of Brahmanical, Vedic religion frozen in time for thousands of years.

As things stand now, the HEF and VF have managed to get the Curriculum Commission (a purely advisory body to the State Board of Education) to agree to a large number of their suggested changes in alignment with their Hindu supremacist ideology (Hindutva). The only opposition they faced was a last minute organizing by some Indologists (M. Witzel from Harvard, S. Wolpert from UCLA and J. Heitzman from UCDavis with around 50 other scholars supporting them, http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/witzelletter.pdf ) and a faculty letter from over 130 experts in South Asian Studies, and South Asian professors at universities.

While these interventions did help prevent the inclusion of many incorrect and potentially harmful suggestions, many other problematic Hindutva changes got accepted by the Curriculum Commission on Dec 2, 2005.

The credentials of Vedic Foundation as an organization presenting history is hardly credible when it lists the following as facts on its website:
1.Indian history is 1972 millions years old (this would mean that Hindusim is 1.7 billion years older than the Dinosaurs!)

2. Hindu religion was first revealed 111.52 trillion years ago - this means that hinduism is older than the big bang, infact, more than 8000 times as old as the entire universe itself!!

3.Bhagwan Ram ruled Ayodhya during the previous tretayug, 18.144 million years ago

4. India (Bharatvarsh) is such a place on the earth planet which is not much affected by the natural calamities and disasters like the ice age and the prolonged spine chilling, icy cold storms and blizzards that happen in America and the European countries at the beginning and at the recessing period of these ice ages.

The edits suggested by the group to the board present a rather narrow and monolithic version of Hinduism. They include such changes as “The Vedas constitute the source of Hinduism” from the original statement that read “The Vedas came to form the major beliefs of the religion called Brahmanism.” Within the Indian philosophies, numerous significant schools including the Nyaya – one of the dominant schools of thought – refused to accept the Vedas as more than a set of important writings. Thus all Hinduism cannot have been born from the Vedas.

“Men had many more rights than women. Unless there were no sons in a family, only a man could inherit property. Only men could go to school or become priests” was changed to “Men had different rights and duties than women,” followed by, “Women’s education was mostly done at home.” All cultures have had their set of discrimination and it is important to recognize these in all our histories. While generalizations cannot be made, the dominant Hindu culture had a gender bias which is being hidden by such a misstatement. Similar edits regarding Dalits have agitated Dalit groups.

A diverse group of people, including numerous Hindus, are quite dismayed by the acceptance of these “edits” by the Curriculum Commission and are petitioning the State Board to reject them. The media itself has been covering this issue in an alarming manner–this “controversy” is being framed as a debate between some faculty (who are represented as white and non-Hindus) and a monolithic, aggrieved Hindu community.

This oversimplification along racial lines is ridiculous since it allows a complete dismissal of genuine scholarship. Voices within the Indian American and Hindu American communities are urging that the media pay more attention to the diversity of views within the community itself.

Sections of the Hindu community are also concerned that the HAF and VF have presented a very narrow sliver of Hinduism to represent all of Hinduism. For example, the texts suggest the belief of one God in Hinduism. Numerous Hindus argue that various sects of Hinduism have had different beliefs in this regard. Certain sects of Mimamsa consider the Vedas to be the eternal reality and the presence of a God as redundant. Certain followers of Advaita believe that the ultimate reality of Brahman has no form and cannot be defined. Certainly a monotheistic Bhagwan cannot include all these belief systems.

In addition, the edited texts also suggest that untouchables and Dalits no longer exist in India. Numerous Dalit groups have argued that while the Indian law bans untouchability, in reality, Dalits are oppressed and treated as untouchables in various parts of India even today. Burning of Dalits, lynching or other forms of violence for such acts as drinking water or taking food with everyone, going into a temple make the news on a regular basis.

The group opposing these edits argues that it makes no suggestions about what should be included and it has no agenda regarding the content. It only requires that the text be factual and that it represent the plurality within Hinduism as well as the diverse religious and cultural practices practices of the various communities that have lived in this region of the world.

For more information, please contact mail@friendsofsouthasia.org
Related Links
The Edits to the Textbooks
Prof Michael Witzel on the Edits
India Abroad Coverage
The Irrelevance of a Visa